Artificial emotional intelligence provider backed by Anthemis, SOSV and Make in LA to further research and development of its emotion recognition technology
San Francisco, CA, April 18, 2018 — Feel Therapeutics, Inc., a developer of artificial emotional intelligence technology that changes the way we monitor and manage mental health, today announced that it has raised a total of $1.8 million in seed funding from Anthemis Exponential Ventures, SOSV, Make in LA and angel investors. Feel is developing the World’s first Emotion Sensor & Mental Health Advisor, which combines the company’s proprietary emotion recognition technology with evidence-based techniques. The round that has closed since December 2017 is intended to cover further research and development costs along with market validation and clinical studies. Feel will showcase its emotion recognition technology at HLTH The Future of Healthcare event, May 6-9, in Las Vegas, Startup Kiosk #26.
“We are delighted to close our seed stage round in our pursuit to develop the new era of augmented mental health”, said George Eleftheriou, CEO and Co-founder of Feel Therapeutics. “We are confident that the expertise that Anthemis Exponential Ventures is bringing to our Board of Directors will contribute to Feel Therapeutics' growth and in elevating our company’s mission.”
“Our mission is to help individuals to take a more proactive role in monitoring and managing their mental health and insurance providers and therapists to provide better and more affordable mental health care services”, said Haris Tsirmpas, CTO and Co-founder of Feel Therapeutics. “Technology can help us evaluate better and manage mental health disorders.”
“We're increasingly seeing companies emerge with a razor-sharp focus on what really matters - people's individual needs,” said Anthemis’s Director, Vica Manos. "We're pleased to support George and Haris and the team at Feel Therapeutics as they continue their journey to provide diagnostics for an important market. Specialized, adaptive and individualized services will make a huge impact on how patient care is managed. We believe that technology can help ensure that individual needs are at the heart of health and financial well-being.”
“SOSV takes pride in backing founders using technology to solve real problems,” said Duncan Turner, general partner, SOSV, and managing director, HAX. “Feel Therapeutics has proven their ability to execute during their time with us in Shenzhen. We are excited about their onward journey and to be following on in this investment round.”
“Technology is playing a transformative role in empowering people to manage their well-being. By objectively assessing data and applying machine processing algorithms, Feel Therapeutics can put clinical-level insights into our hands”, said Noramay Cadena, Managing Partner, Make in LA.
Feel Therapeutics, Inc. is developing Digital Biomarkers and Therapeutics to bring objective data and measurement in the way we diagnose, manage, and care for Mental Health. The company is backed by top-tier investors (Felicis, Anthemis, SOSV) and has partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies to develop novel digital biomarkers and bring digital health solutions to market as standalone programs or alongside medications. Feel Therapeutics is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Europe. For more information, visit http://www.feeltherapeutics.com or contact us at info@feeltherapeutics.com.
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by building, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. Our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and spirit of collaboration inspires everything we do. By creating fertile ground for entrepreneurs, institutions, researchers, academics, and visionaries to come together, we believe we can solve the financial services world’s most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all. Learn more at www.anthemis.com.
Exponential Ventures is a disruptive innovation capability powered by MMI Holdings Limited. Exponential Ventures explores scaler opportunities where technology-based businesses, which when combined with MMI’s assets, show meaningful potential to rapidly generate exponential growth in revenue and profit. It looks for optimiser opportunities where technology-based businesses have the potential to deliver significant efficiencies for MMI’s existing business. Exponential Ventures pursues venture developer opportunities that reach new markets, meet new needs, leverage new business models and show the potential to fundamentally disrupt the insurance market space over longer time horizons. To learn more, visit www.exponentialventures.io.
SOSV, the Accelerator VC, has $300 million in assets under management. Founded in 1995, SOSV’s investments focus on early-stage startups selected from 4,000 companies applying every year through http://sosv.com. A large network of follow-on VCs invest another $200m into SOSV startups annually.
Investment, in both cash and intellectual capital, is deployed via SOSV-run global accelerators:
• Life Sciences: IndieBio (San Francisco) and RebelBio (Cork, Ireland)
• Hardware (Consumer, Health, Enterprise, Industrial): HAX (Shenzhen, San Francisco)
• Cross-Border Internet and Mobile: Chinaccelerator (Shanghai) and MOX (Taipei)
• Disruptive Food: FOOD-X (New York)
• Intelligent City: URBAN-X (New York)
At MiLA Capital, the team is obsessed with technology-enabled startups, especially those working on mobility, IoT, robotics, rockets, new materials, unwearables, and medical devices. Hardware should be invisible and there’s a lot of work to do. In 2015, Make in LA was launched, an early-stage accelerator that seeks out talented entrepreneurs and stress tests them to help navigate the costly pitfalls associated with hardware. In 2017, Toolbox LA emerged as the epicenter of hardware entrepreneurship in California to highlight Southern California’s thriving tech scene, manufacturing ecosystem, and eclectic culture. To learn more, visit www.mila.vc.
